Hiking at Big Elk Creek Idaho

It's Sunday and we took the kids and went together with the Millers and their girls. What a great day for a hike. We also wanted to see how low Palisades Lake was... at 5%. Pretty low it was, but may get lower so we can drive out on the lake when the snow gets here and try to find the road and town that lay below the lake...




The Hike...

The hike was very, very nice... some elevation gain and in and out of the water. Here's the Google Earth view of the hike along with the elevation profile. The thick blue line is our hike through the canyon:


Big Elk Creek is such a pretty area. All pine trees back into a deep valley about 30 miles from Jackson Hole. Very nice drive going through Swan Valley and the best trout fishing area in the world... on the South Fork, Snake River.




We also scouted out camping areas for next weekend that we hope to get away with a few other families to camp. There were tons of nice camp sites that we marked on the GPS for next week. Big Elk Creek area is a very, very nice area to hike, fish and camp. Plus the campsites are within 20 feet of most outstanding fishing... all night if ya want to :)


We hiked about mile down the creek. All four kids did really well on the hike, especially since half the hike was through some pretty serious vegetation along with a steep and unforgiving cliff to the right.


We took the West side of the creek trail which eventually connected to a horse trial about .24 miles into the hike. We paralleled the creek the entire way, every once in a while getting close enough to dip ourselves into the water. Very nice day, sunny, cool breeze, absolutely no bugs!


There were tons of Kokanee in the creek. They were making their way from the ocean up to the top of the creek to lay their eggs and die. There were many of them and the girls got to see the very bright orange fish all over in the creek. We ran into a few fishermen that were walking the creek. Some fishing for trout, most for the Kokanee.



Here's a few videos of the day...


VIDEO: Hiking along the trail at Big Elk


VIDEO: More hiking along the Big Elk Trail


VIDEO: Driving by Palisades Lake at 5% capacity


VIDEO: Looking for the Kokanee in the Creek

First day of school at Longfellow Elementary

The first day of school at Longfellow Elementary was this week and boy were the kids ready to go. Mia is now in Kindergarten in Mrs. Briggs class... same teacher as Graycie. We both really enjoy Mrs. Briggs, such a good teach and our kids both love her. Graycie is now in Second grade, still with Mrs. Berg who we both really like also.




Here's the girls with their teachers:



We all were able to walk to school for and Mia and Mandy rode their scooters. The school is maybe 500 feet from our house so we'll be able to walk every day this year for both kids. Here's a few pictures and videos of the girls on their first day of school 2007.





VIDEO: Walking to School


VIDEO: Walking to school on the first day


VIDEO: Riding the scooters to school


VIDEO: Mia's orientation at Kindergarten


VIDEO: Mia checking out her Kindergarten Class


VIDEO: Mia and Mandy ready for Kindergarten


VIDEO: Mia and her backpack


VIDEO: Graycie and her class lining up for the first time 2007

Mid August in Idaho Falls

Just got back from vacation in Washington and we had a pretty mellow week. Didn't really do much at all except lounge around the house and do yard work at a slow and steady pace.


As usual, the girls were in the Miller's pool off and on. The weather has still be outstanding... 85 degrees and not a cloud in site, the entire week! We haven't seen rain that much during the summer, let alone clouds. We did get to enjoy a few evenings of incredibly loud and long-lasting thunderstorms.



The kids were out playing in the rain and enjoying the thunder in the distance. We cut back the flowers, cleaned up everything from vacation and that's about it. The girls were able to go to the stables and feed and play with a bunch of horses which they most enjoyed.



Frank was able to get out all day from before sunrise till later in the afternoon up at Moody Creek with Steve and the dogs. They fished all day for Frank's birthday and did quite well. There will be a post shortly about that. We saw a moose, heard other animals and killed a 4 foot rattle snake. It was yellow and cold. But, Steve was able to kill it with a stick and take the rattlers.




Other then that...nothing much going on. We went down to Taylor's Crossing Summer days where the girls got to eat and listen to some country concert. We'll be posting the vacation photos later this week. We took so many videos and pictures that its taking a while to sort them all out.